1. Developer's Guide
  2. Installing and Configuring Oracle Data Provider for .NET
  3. Installing Oracle Data Provider for .NET, Managed Driver

Installing Oracle Data Provider for .NET, Managed Driver

Getting started with ODP.NET, Managed Driver

You can get started with ODP.NET Managed Driver by either using the Windows Installer, XCopy, or NuGet.

If you are using XCopy: Download ODP.NET, Managed Driver .zip file to a directory for staging the install. The .zip file contains a README file with XCopy installation instructions.

Run the configure.bat script in one of the following directories:

  • For 32-bit .NET Framework: OH\odp.net\managed\x86

  • For 64-bit .NET Framework: OH\odp.net\managed\x64

Each directory contains an unconfigure.bat if ODP.NET, Managed Driver needs to be unconfigured and removed from the machine.

If you are using NuGet: Download the ODP.NET NuGet package(s) and use NuGet Package Manager to install.

The following NuGet packages are available:

  • ODP.NET, Managed Driver

  • Entity Framework assembly for Code First and Entity Framework 6 or higher use with ODP.NET, Managed Driver

If you are using Windows Installer: Follow the VSIX or Microsoft Windows Installer (MSI) steps to install ODP.NET, Managed Driver.

ODP.NET, Managed Driver Files

ODP.NET, Managed Driver consists of the following files:

Table 2-1 ODP.NET, Managed Driver Files with Descriptions

File Description

Oracle.ManagedDataAccess.dll

Platform-independent (AnyCPU), fully-managed ADO.NET provider

\Resources\<lang>\Oracle.ManagedDataAccess.resources.dll

Platform-independent (AnyCPU), fully-managed ADO.NET provider resource DLLs.

OraProvCfg.exe

Platform-independent (AnyCPU) utility to configure/unconfigure ODP.NET, Managed and Unmanaged Drivers.

configure.bat

Batch file to add managed ODP.NET Windows Registry entries.

unconfigure.bat

Batch file to remove managed ODP.NET Windows Registry entries.

tnsnames.ora

A sample configuration file that defines data source aliases.

sqlnet.ora

A sample configuration file that configures network related settings.

Oracle.ManagedDataAccess.Client.Configuration.Section.xsd

An XML schema file that defines the configuration section for ODP.NET, Managed Driver.

Oracle.ManagedDataAccess.EntityFramework.dll

Platform-independent (AnyCPU), fully-managed assembly for Code First and Entity Framework 6 higher

\x64\Oracle.ManagedDataAccessIOP.dll

Platform-dependent (64-bit .NET Framework), Managed Assembly for Kerberos support

\x86\Oracle.ManagedDataAccessIOP.dll

Platform-dependent (32-bit .NET Framework), Managed Assembly for Kerberos support

The OraProvCfg.exe utility can perform many different configuration tasks, such as GACing ODP.NET or configuring ODP.NET in the machine.config file. To learn about how to use this utility, run oraprovcfg.exe on the command line without any parameters, which will output the documentation.

See Also:

Oracle Database Installation Guide for Microsoft Windows for installation instructions

Platform-Dependent Assemblies and Their Search Order

ODP.NET, Managed Driver has one set of platform-dependent DLL: Oracle.ManagedDataAccessIOP.dll, which has a 32-bit .NET version and a 64-bit .NET version. While they consist of 100% managed code, they call APIs outside of .NET, which is why they are platform dependent.

Oracle.ManagedDataAccessIOP.dll supports Kerberos. These assemblies are only needed in your application if you are using Kerberos security.

These assemblies are not intended to be directly referenced by an application. Rather, they will be referenced implicitly. ODP.NET, Managed Driver will reference the assemblies by using the following search order:

  1. Global Assembly Cache

  2. The web application's bin directory or Windows application's EXE directory

  3. The x86 or x64 subdirectory based on whether the application runs in 32-bit or 64-bit .NET Framework. If the application is built using AnyCPU, then ODP.NET will use the correct DLL bitness as long as the assembly is available. Oracle recommends using this method of finding dependent assemblies if your application is AnyCPU.

For example, use the following steps for your application to use the 64-bit version of Oracle.ManagedDataAccessIOP.dll:

  1. Right click Visual Studio project, select Add, and then select New Folder.
  2. Name the folder x64.
  3. Right-click the newly created x64 folder, select Add, and then select Existing Item.
  4. Browse to the folder where the DLL is located, which usually is ORACLE_HOME\odp.net\managed\x64, and then select Oracle.ManagedDataAccessIOP.dll.
  5. Click Add.
  6. Click the newly added Oracle.ManagedDataAccessIOP.dll in the x64 folder.
  7. In the properties window, set Copy To Output Director to Copy Always.

For x86 targeted applications, name the folder x86 and add the assembly from the x86 directory.

To make your application platform independent even if it depends on Oracle.ManagedDataAccessIOP.dll create both x64 and x86 folders with the necessary assemblies added to them.

File Locations After Installation

In an Oracle Universal Installer based install, the Oracle.ManagedDataAccess.dll assembly is installed to the following location:

.NET Framework 4:

ORACLE_HOME\ODP.NET\nuget directory

Managed ODP.NET is embedded within the Oracle.ManagedDataAccess.<version>.nupkg file. This file is a NuGet package. ODP.NET users can install this package using common Microsoft tools, such as NuGet Package Manager and Visual Studio.

When Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio is installed, Oracle documentation is installed in Visual Studio itself.

Samples are provided in GitHub:

https://github.com/oracle/dotnet-db-samples